Equal parts attractive and easy to care for, cacti and succulents are just the thing to to dress up a sunny windowsill. Learn how to keep your cacti and succulents beautiful and healthy with these tips—green thumb not required!

Place your plant where it will get a lot of bright light, such as a sunny windowsill. Cacti and succulents grow best with four to six hours of sunlight a day.

Cacti do best in porous pots, which tend to allow the potting soil to dry quickly. Glazed pots don’t dry out as fast, which can lead to root rot. Opt for terra cotta pots.

A good soil mix is also important. You want equal parts of coarse sand and all-purpose potting mix.

The worst thing you could do for a cactus is to water it on a regular basis. You only need to water them when the soil is bone-dry. Sometimes this occurs once a week or sometimes it occurs once every three weeks.

You should repot your cactus or succulent every three to five years. This involves the removal of most of the soil from the roots and replacing the plant in the same sized pot, or larger if need be.